The Pandalam Palace has taken strong exception to the claims and observations made by T.K.A. Nair, former principal secretary to the Prime Minister, on women’s entry to Sabarimla.
Pandalam Palace managing committee chairman P. Rama Varma Raja said the arguments put forward by the former bureaucrat in support of unrestricted Sabarimala pilgrimage for women appeared to be in bad taste.
There was every reason to suspect some ‘‘hidden agenda’’ behind Mr. Nair’s repeated claims on his mother’s controversial entry to Sabarimala, especially at a time when women’s entry row was before the Supreme Court, Mr. Raja said.
Mr. Raja said the earlier reports only said that Mr. Nair was named ‘Ayyappankutty’ by the then Raja of Pandalam, the eldest member of the royal family of erstwhile Pandalam kingdom. Though it was said that he was initiated into ‘rice’ (choroonu) at Sabarimala, the presence of his young mother there at that time appeared to be a new claim. If at all Mr. Nair’s mother in 1940 or other women, in the restricted age group, from royal family or from any well-to-do families visited the forest temple, at any time, it was against the practices at Sabarimala and could only be illegal, Mr. Raja said.
He said Mr. Nair’s dependence on personal hear-says to generalise the practice was illogical. The head of the palace could never had advised his parents against the rituals and practices at Sabarimala, he said.
Incidentally, Mr. Nair’s father was an employee of the Forest Department and chances were there that he might have ‘used’ his position to take his wife too to Sabarimala for their son’s choroonu, Mr. Raja said.
He said Mr. Nair’s statement that a young female member of the Travancore royal family too claimed to have visited Sabarimala could be taken only as a futile attempt to mobilise public support in favour of entry for all women to Sabarimala.
Mr. Nair’s comparison of Sabarimala with Haji Ali Dargha in Mumbai too was uncalled for, he said.
